Résumé
'Mass private properties' such as shopping malls, hotel complexes, and large educational, manufacturing and industrial sites increasingly operate as sites of public and social life. Since private interests reign over the policing of these spaces, public life that was once protected and controlled by the state is now policed by private institutions. These changes have resulted in a significant rise in the number of private security personnel employed in Canada, where there are now more than twice as many private security agents as there are public police officers. This development has expanded the ambit of authority held by the 'private police' and those institutions that employ them.This paper is concerned with the nature, scope and extent of 'security governance' in mass private spaces, specifically through the use of in-house, or proprietary, systems of governance. Findings suggest that actuarialism, and the associated practices related to risk management, are enacted in order to reduce loss and to prevent, spread and minimize risk. Moreover, such strategies may be linked with other techniques that are designed in order to promote a particular image, or profile, of mass private spaces.